- News: News
-
12 Apr
[09-01-12] The Olympics are Coming!
The world’s premier sporting event - the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics is coming to the UK! It’s not only coming to the UK but Loughborough will be hosting Team GB and the Japanese team in their preparation for the games.[02-11-11] Intro to Acts
We’ve just started our new series on the book of Acts.[18-09-11] Introducing the new hosting team
A little while ago I attending a social event where most people were strangers.[15-09-11] Vision for the Future
On Sunday I shared with everyone there some of the things that have been stirring in me over the 3 month sabbatical.[18-08-11] Coming to Loughborough in September?
We are really looking forward to meeting and hearing from you if you are coming to Loughborough this September! Students have been at the heart of Open Heaven since it began over 18 years ago and we are so excited to meet you all and invest into you for the next 3 years.[01-07-11] France Team Update
So much has happened since our last update! It’s been a real boost to the team to have Ali and Vicky back from Montgenevre and meeting with the team regularly again.[01-06-11] Club Mission FND
On Friday 20th May we had our first ever Club Mission FND.[04-04-11] Audio Intro to Clusters
At January's Vision Evening I talked about our plans to transition our non-student cells into clusters (our students made a similar transition in 2009).[10-03-11] Luxuries for Life 2011
I'm sure many of you will have enjoyed a pancake or three yesterday.[01-03-11] Become the next OH Student Worker
We're looking for a new student worker to develop our work amongst Loughborough's students and take it to the next level.
This Term's Theme
We are told by some of the financial experts that our nation is crippled with debt. £848.5 billion which is the equivalent of 59.8% of GDP. The forecasts for economic growth are similarly bleak perhaps dropping by as much as 1.1% GDP in 2010.
In Acts 11:27 the early church were faced with a bleak outlook on the national financial situation. They had a prophetic word about widespread famine (which happened in the fourth year of the reign of Caeser Claudius and continued for many years). Their response was fascinating; “so the disciples determined…to send relief to their brothers living in Judea”.(v 29) In other words as news of famine and shortage reached them the early church gave away as much as they were able.
So what had happened to these early Christians that had so transformed their worldview that increased financial pressure only increased their generosity? What had they seen in Jesus that meant they were other-centered enough to prefer others needs over their own? What can we learn from them for our own situation?
This term our theme is called ‘Courageous Giving’. It is what the church in Acts demonstrated. We are going to start off looking at God the giver, then think about biblical economics and how it differs from our own economic context. We will look at stewardship, tithing, generosity and the principle of true riches.
Perhaps we will discover in all of that the secret that the early church knew that allowed them to be courageously generous even though in the rest of the world things were looking desperate.
Posted by: Naomi Light on Monday Apr 12th, 2010
- Comments
-
Logged-in members can post comments on openheaven.org news articles.